Hope In Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience

Since the beginning of time people have been changing the way they view things. Whether it be physically moving, or changing their view on a topic it has been happening for as long as humanity has existed. There are three men that really made people stop and think about their beliefs and morals, and those three men had very similar opinions. But overall, Henry David Thoreau, Martin Luther King Jr., and Gandhi all were very influential philosophers that have affected the way the people view peace, change in society, and hope. In Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience he speaks about how he participated in peaceful protest. For Thoreau his peaceful protest was simply not paying his taxes. But in that day and age that was quite a risky thing to do.

Gandhi knew that when there is an oppressing government if you really want to succeed in your protest then you must have hope. You must never give up on what your morals are and you will have to have hope till the end that things are going to get better. When Gandhi says “But so long as there is yet life in these our bones, we will never comply with your arbitrary laws.” he is saying that as long as I have life I will never loose hope and abide by your unjust laws. This made people change the way they view hope, and they realized that hope can even be a type of courage. This relates to Civil Disobedience because in the text Thoreau has the hope that people will not do something if they think it is unnecessary or unjust. MLK was also a very influential philosopher when it came to the subject of hope. MLK is a perfect example of hope. Through all of the unjust he went through and saw he always had hope that things would get better. He had hope but he also influenced other people to have hope. By him giving speeches and generally being hopeful he made people think about how they view hope. But when it comes down to it Henry David Thoreau, Martin Luther King Jr., and Gandhi all were very influential philosophers that have affected the way people view peace, change in society, and hope. Many people have changed their views on these topics because they have heard the wise words of these men. These men